76 
A GOSSIP ABOUT AMBER. 
[Nature and Art, March 1, 1867. 
amber-power against witches, against fairies, against 
the too critical gaze of man, and even against the 
grand heritage of the human family — Death. The 
Scottish for amber is “ lammer.” Lammer beads 
are held at the present day by the Scottish peasantry 
in peculiar veneration. When strung on red thread, 
they were supposed to be a charm to repel witchery ; 
worn by children, they were considered a certain 
preventive of dangerous illness, and were deemed 
particularly potent against the spells of witches and 
evil machinations generally. A set of lammer beads 
was at one time an ordinary present from a mother 
to her daughter on the night of her marriage ; so 
that, being worn about the neck, her husband might 
the more be charmed with her beauty ; but the 
most extraordinary form which the belief in amber- 
power seems to have taken in the minds of the 
Scottish people, was that of attributing immortality 
as the result of its internal administration. Faint 
traces of this singular belief may be discovered in 
the records of ancient times, but nowhere is the 
error so distinctly and particularly set forth as in 
the following lines, collated from an old number of 
the “ Scots Magazine,” respecting the virtues of 
lammer-wine : — - 
Drink ae coup o’ the lammer-wine, 
An’ the tear is nae mair in your e’e. 
An’ drink twae coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Nae dule nor pine ye’ll dree. 
An’ drink three coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Your mortal life’s awa. 
An’ drink four coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Ye’ll turn a fairy sma’. 
An’ drink five coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
O’ joys ye’ve rowth an’ wale. 
An’ drink sax coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Ye’ll ring- ower hill an’ dale. 
An’ drink seven coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Ye may dance on the milky way. 
An’ drink aught coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Ye may ride on the fire-flaught blae. 
An’ drink nine coups o’ the lammer-wine, 
Your endday ye'll ne’er see; 
An’ the nicht is gane, an’ the day has come 
Will never set to thee. 
Aid the idea is further developed in the following- 
verse from a poem called “ The Marmaiden of 
Clyde.” The mermaid, while performing her toilet, 
relates in song the story of her noble parentage ; 
of her having been decoyed to the river-side by a 
deer of which she was in chase ; of her being there 
benighted and seized by a “ stalwart Gowe,” who 
plunged with her into the flood, and gave directions 
for her transformation into a mermaid : — 
An’ talc my bi-ide, my bonnie bonnie bride, 
To the dwerch the wicht can say, 
An’ wash awa the changeful life 
That lives in upper day ; 
And dip her first in the Norroway sea, 
She’s mine for evermare ; 
And dip her syne in the lammer-wine, 
Alike then sea and air. 
It requires some effort of imagination to conceive 
a period when any considerable portion of the 
inhabitants of Scotland could believe in an elixir 
of immortality. That they did so, however, there 
is no room to doubt ; and the strength of their 
belief in all the varieties of amber-power is attested 
by the vitality which characterizes the remains 
thereof in the present year of grace. 
Up to a comparatively recent period, amber was 
employed as a remedial agent in the practice of 
medicine. The elder Pliny extolled its virtues, and 
although it has now noplace in the Pharmacopoeias of 
this country, suffering humanity has not long enjoyed 
immunity from its empirical exhibition. Formerly 
it was in great favour as a stimulant, being the 
principal constituent of eau de luce. This cele- 
brated essence was a volatile preparation of oil of 
amber with ammonia ; evaporated to thickness, it 
was used for removing stains from cloth, and when 
diluted it was applied as a stimulant in fainting- 
fits. As a medicine, amber was used in a variety 
of forms, ranging from unsophisticated powder to 
the most elaborate products of distillation. In 
Salmon’s “Pharmacopoeia Londinensis,” published 
in 1678, amber, whether “white or yellow,” is de- 
scribed as “hot and dry, binding, cephalick, car- 
diack, hysteric.k, and analeptick,” and we are told 
that it stops catarrhs, cures epilepsies, apoplexies, 
lethargies, and megrims, scurvy, green sickness, 
jaundice, and ulcers ; that hysterical fits, palsy, 
convulsions, and falling sickness yield to its virtues, 
and that it is eminent against measles, small -pox, 
spotted-fever, plague, pleurisy, palpitation of the 
heart, and other malign diseases ; in fact, amber would 
appear to have been a general specific in all the ills 
that flesh is heir to. It is possible that our self- 
complacency may be disturbed by the reflection that 
no further back than three generations, such an 
expose of medical practice should have been received 
with favour by the profession ; and if anything 
could compensate us for not having being born 
in the “good old times,” it would be a perusal of the 
old dispensatories, the pages of which bristle with 
atrocious compounds, grimly intended as so many 
aids to stricken humanity in the fight which it is 
continually waging with disease. Amber was not 
only used as a medicine, and as a volatile essence 
having some similarity to our Eau de Cologne, but 
it was also worn as an amulet or charm against par- 
ticular diseases. There were many ailments in the 
prevention of which it was deemed efficacious ; 
particularly, the plague, the ravages of which were 
greatly dreaded. As a charm against this scourge, 
amber was worn by all classes of people, from the 
meaner sort up to the highest dignitaries of the 
Church. It would appear that the mere wearing of 
the charm was not sufficient to preserve an in- 
dividual from the fatal malady, but that some pre- 
liminary ceremonies were essential to that end. 
The piece of amber employed should be “translucid,” 
and previous to being hung about the neck should 
be “ rubbed on the jugular artery, on the hand 
wrists, near the instep, and on the throne of the 
heart after all which, it was supposed to be a cer- 
tain preventive of the plague. Whether it was so 
in reality, is matter , of opinion ; but if the feeling 
of immunity from danger lent greater nerve and 
boldness to those who, themselves untouched, 
ministered to the necessities of the afflicted, the 
